Carolyn Cole

How to Own Your Power

October 11 - Sarah Ashlock

Entrepreneurship

FIRST THOUGHT: Failure to Launch

I’ve got to vent a little, my friends. Here’s the thing: When someone is talking to you, put down your phone, look into their eyes and listen. Everyone is a lot more observant than you think, so most of us notice when a person’s eyes are darting all around your face as you speak, looking right, left, and anywhere else besides your face. We notice when a person is texting and nodding at the wrong times; throwing in a few “mmhmms” and “yeahs” is a shoddy coverup. Now, don’t get me wrong. We all have that relative or colleague who bores us to actual tears, filling our bodies and minds with anguish as we attempt to stay attentive. But we should all still try. Rant over, folks.

WOMEN IN NUMBERS: One-third

It’s apparent that this kind of courtesy is essential to cultivating lasting friendships, but it’s also crucial if you’re a business owner and want to stay one. Too many entrepreneurs are blinded by so many things on their plates that they forget to nurture the other important bits, like employee morale or forecasting. Only one-third of businesses make it to a decade. Yikes.

WOMAN TO WATCH: Carolyn Cole, Founder and Owner of Boomtank

As I chat with boss ladies across the world, it’s apparent one of the biggest lessons they’ve learned is to recognize when you need help. Rome wasn’t built in a day, as they say, and it certainly wasn’t done by one solitary dude. Today’s Woman to Watch, Carolyn Cole, is a woman people reach out to when they acknowledge they need help. She’s the founder of Boomtank, a global business and consulting company.

Whether it’s clients snagging her for her curriculum design and management leadership training or regular Joes listening to her podcast, Carolyn talks straight to people who might already have motivation, but need the confidence and expertise to achieve their dreams.

On her “Boomtank Business Show,” Carolyn interviews men and women who have achieved their version of success, and she particularly focuses on how vital it is to better yourself both in business and at home. For Carolyn, that’s really the key to happiness, as she always takes stock of each day and celebrates the wins.

One of the most inspiring nuggets of advice Carolyn gives is to own your own power. Yes, ladies. Own it. She shares a story about an eagle landing on a branch, in which the eagle doesn’t ask the branch for permission or check with the other birds to see if she should land. She just does it. As Carolyn says, stop playing small: If you want to land on that branch, but then change your mind and want to head over to another, that’s cool.

Over the course of Carolyn’s education at Johns Hopkins and during her time as an attorney, Carolyn has been able to really get a grasp of other people’s behavior. For example, how a company is organized, how a team collaborates and how a person shows vulnerability are all facets of running one of those businesses I was talking about earlier that has a better chance of surviving. Getting that stuff right shouldn’t be some additional task, when you think about it. You’ve got to build team functionality and observance into your work hours, and make it as crucial as securing investors or marketing your products.

There are some things in life you’ve got to fight for in order to achieve success in them. Check out our three things worth fighting for by clicking here or, if you’re listening via podcast, head over to OnTheDotWoman.com!

QUITE THE QUOTE

A journalist and three-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Reporting, Herbert Bayard Swope, sums up today’s On The Dot beautifully. He said:

“I can't give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: Try to please everybody all the time.”